Energy official predicting climate 'catastrophe'

Tuesday

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2011 at 11:28 AM

The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said yesterday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called "a catastrophe for all of us."

The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said yesterday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called “a catastrophe for all of us.”

Fatih Birol spoke as delegates from nearly 200 countries convened the opening day of annual U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

International climate negotiators have pledged to keep the global temperature rise to 3.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Earth has already warmed 1.4?degrees, according to climate scientists.

According to the energy agency’s most recent analysis, heat-trapping emissions from the world’s energy infrastructure will lead to a 2-degree Celsius increase in the Earth’s temperature that will climb to 6 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.

Unless there is a shift away from some of the fossil-fuel energy used for electricity and transportation, Birol said, “the world is perfectly on track for a 6-degree Celsius increase in temperature.

“Everybody, even the schoolchildren, knows this is a catastrophe for all of us,” he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The climate implications of the global energy mix are disputed by many conservatives in the U.S. who reject a connection between human activity and climate change.

David Burwell, who directs the energy and climate program at the Carnegie Endowment, said Birol’s comments have “big implications for capital investment in energy,” though he noted that it will be oil executives and others in the private sector who will drive many of the key decisions.